What were Robert E. Lee's feelings about the war?

Answer 1

Lee thought secession was a tremendous mistake and that it would result in anarchy.

Lee did not doubt that secession was perfectly legal and constitutional, though. Most southerners believed that secession was legal and possible, even if not wise or recommended. Northerners had been the first to propose secession, first in the 1790s and again during the War of 1812, which was vastly unpopular in the Yankee states of the northeast, who traded heavily with Britain. The northerners continued to grow rich on a treasonable trade with the enemy during the War of 1812, and went so far as to call a secession convention of northern states at Hartford, Connecticut in 1815. By the time the convention met the war was over, so the idea went no farther.

In that sense, Lincoln was the true revolutionary. Lincoln sought, successfully, to change the terms upon which the Union was organized. Before the Civil War the US was exactly what its name says - united States, in the sense that each state was a sovereign entity. The states had voluntarily joined this Union, surely they could leave if they no longer wished to be a part of it. Lincoln changed all this. The country went from being a loose agglomeration of somewhat united states into one, single, INDIVISIBLE nation, all as a result of the war. Before, the central government was a weak one of LIMITED POWERS. On paper, it still is. In practice we have an ever growing central government, with its nose in every aspect of everybody's business, a trend which began with the northern victory in the civil war.

Answer 2

He was against secession, and said the people of the south would regret it. But, although offered command of the Union forces at the war's onset, declined because he could not fight against Virginia, his home.

Answer 3

He was one of many senior Virginians who disapproved of secession, and were hoping the state would not vote Confederate.

When it did, he found himself with divided loyalties, and asked the General-in-Chief, Winfield Scott, if he could stay neutral. Scott was contemptuous of this idea.

Meanwhile Lincoln had offered Lee command of all the Unon armies. But Lee decided he was a Virginian first and an American second, and finaly resigned from the US Army to join the Confederates.

Answer 4

Robert E Lee felt very sad